4/15/2010

Friday in the Fort with EGMONT Assistant Editor Alison Weiss

Today in The Fort we have the spectacular Alison Weiss, assistant editor at EGMONT USA (my publisher)! If you are a Twitterer, you know her as the face behind @EgmontUSA, and you also know she's generous and funny and all around amazing.

Egmont USA is a children’s book publisher based in Manhattan, and is part of the Egmont Group, one of Scandinavia’s leading media groups, with activities including film, TV production, and interactive games. Egmont has activities in more than 30 countries. Alison has been with Egmont USA for almost two years.

Check below her interview for EXCELLENT giveaways from Egmont USA!

Five Fun Facts About Alison:

1) People tell me I make the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I don't know that I agree, but they are yummy, and I don't make them often.

2) I grew up in the Sleepy Hollow in which Washington Irving set his famous short story. No, the Johnny Depp movie is not an accurate portrayal of the legend, and Sleepy Hollow looks nothing like that.

3) My favorite words are "sesquipedalian" and "brindled." If you can work both into your manuscript effectively I will be extremely impressed.

4) When I was in second grade, I wanted to be a paleontologist. Now I work in children's books. Yeah, that sounds about right.

5) Gilbert Blythe was my first book crush, and I have never quite gotten over it.

Favorite comfort food?This should be easy, right? I keep waffling on this. (Yum, waffles!) Either spaghetti pie, which is sort of like lasagna, but not, or grilled cheese with tomato soup.

Favorite game (think summer, flashlight tag, Marco Polo)?Night-time kick the can. I was part of a club. We were cool.

Sun worshipper, spray tan or SPF 50?SPF 50 with self-tanner to fool the world. I do not tan. I turn into a tomato. It is not pretty.

Beach or lake? Boat or shore? I like both. I think I’ll say the lake, though, because I usually just get burned at the beach, and end up looking like a tomato. (I see a pattern forming, here.) I haven’t been on a boat in ages, but I like them very much.

Ghost story or Truth or Dare?I’m a total chicken, but I’d rather ghost stories.

Truth? Or dare?Truth.

What singer/musician/band is a must have for The Fort soundtrack?Umm . . . I’m going to embarrass myself so, Pass. (Myra: I find this answer unacceptable. I WILL get an answer, readers. I WILL.)

What movie would you bring to watch?Rear Window. You never know what’s happening right across the street. . . .

Who's the ideal male mascot for The Fort and why?It’s Friday, so it’s a Merlin night (I am a dork!) -- Bradley James because he can protect us from rival pranksters with his sword. But Arthur (his character) is just a total idiot, so he’ll have to bring along Colin Morgan, just in case.

Marshmallows, lightly toasted or burned to a crisp? Burned to a crisp.

Awake all night or first one to sleep?First one asleep. (I’m obviously not the fun one at this slumber party.)

If you could have any YA author visit the fort and tell stories, who would it be and what story would you ask them to tell?I’m wondering if Ally Carter could stop by to teach us super sneaky spy techniques and then lead us in an absolutely flawless and diabolical heist. . . . if you can wake me up first.

I adore Alison, and you will too, as she brought a SWEET stash of Egmont USA ARC's to give away! Be a blog follower and comment for a chance to win:

51 comments:

Normally I do not speak in sesquipdalian sentences, but this enormous brindled boxer knocked me to the ground to lick burnt marshmallow from my fingers while we were telling ghost stories by the lake.I follow. I comment. I love Friday in the Fort with Myra and Alison. I lust for ARCs, although I could rent Rear Window from Netflix and give myself a thrill.

My grandpa made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I once asked him for his recipe, which he gladly turned over to me. Imagine my surprise when I found it was the exact same one as on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag. So, it truly is in the hands of the baker and I would like to petition Alison for some cookies as well as those books.

Then again, I'd like some lemon bars. *clears throat and glances around innocently*

I loved grilled cheese & tomato soup. I also turn into a tomato. Lucky for me, they have way high spf now. Like 80 or 100. Wow. That is a nice collection of books. Thank you for another fabulous Friday in the Fort!

I've never heard anyone talk about spaghetti pie except our fam! It's my men's favorite thing I make (except the middle son who doesn't like to see the perfection of plain ol' spaghetti too messed with). And it's so wonderful to meet fellow adorers of Gil. I'm re-reading as we speak and loving every minute with him. I'm off to find Alison on twitter. Thanks for the great interview and contest, Myra!!

This was great! Alison is hilarious! It really seems like you 'get' each other and that is priceless. Makes me ache to read HOURGLASS even more. Speaking of which, I'd love to get my hands on any of those ARC's your giving away...

Nice interview! I must at some point write a blog post on the relationship between people in the publishing industry and also Cake/Cookies/Insert sweet stuff here.

I'm fast becoming a huge fan of Egmont as they have some fantastic titles - would LOVE to win these books, they're all on the "to get" list. Thank you to both of you for the giveaway and as always, good luck to everyone! :)

Great interview. Ever consider a one on many chat option for your followers. Not so much a fan of any chocolate chip cookie but luv grilled cheese and tomato soup with Lemonade in a colored tin glass that sweats from the heat while sitting in the shade of a big tree with a good book catching the breeze off the lake. I've read your blog often but didn't realize I never hit follow, but I do now.

Fun interview! Ah, Gilbert... I still love him so. I can totally relate to the SPF 50. My skin only has two color options - ghostly white or tomato red. The mention of lemonade-iced-tea makes me wish it was summertime already. :)

Still laughing at the "Merlin" comments. Yes, I am so there, it's Friday night and in our house at 7pm...mutterings of "Shhhhhh, 'Merlin' is coming on..." are echoed. Great choice. I agree -- the magical idiot who is far too brave and the prince sworn to duty who rushes into danger in spite of his own second thoughts. They would so be beneficial to The Fort!

Oooh so cool! Loved the interview and now I'm a follower! Yeah! I agree whole-heartedly on the Rear Window thing. I actually had a professor in college who did his dissertation on Hitchcock and that movie specifically. Very interesting stuff. I believe I learned quite a bit from that class...

Great interview! I would love to win these ARCs. Who doesn't love Alfred Hitchcock??? I need to watch North by Northwest. My favorite is Notorious with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant...fabulous! kghobbs@gmail.com